A Galápagos native – born on Isla Isabela – marine biologist and conservation geneticist Diana Pazmiño focuses her research on rays, sharks, and the human communities that live alongside them.

In this relaxed discussion with David Oakes, Diana explains why she brings conservation science home, how education shapes what gets noticed, valued, and protected, and what ‘protected’ actually means in practice – especially in those liminal spaces where rules and regulations require regular enforcement.

Nothing epitomises Diana’s belief in the value of education more than the project she initiated on the archipelago – The Gill’s Club. Empowering girls aged 8 to 12 across the four inhabited islands of the Galápagos through experiential learning in marine science and conservation, The Gill’s Club fosters a strong bond with the ocean, develops aquatic skills, critical thinking, and female leadership.

They also explore what happens when conservation becomes purely prohibitive, how bans can drive use underground, and why durable protection depends on local buy-in, education, and a sense of shared identity that’s still being built.

This episode was recorded live at the Galápagos Science Centre on Isla San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.

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In the second of two CITES-centric episodes, this episode finds David in conversation with Australian filmmaker Abraham Joffe – director of Trade Secret, the award-winning documentary exposing the global trade in polar bear skins. While climate change relentlessly erodes the sea ice these animals depend on, Abraham reveals how polar bears are still legally trophy-hunted, skinned and sold as luxury rugs and taxidermy, their fate decided in conference halls thousands of miles from the Arctic.

David and Abraham explore how Trade Secret follows journalists, advocates and Arctic guides – including previous guest Iris Ho – as they investigate both legal and illegal polar bear markets, and push for the species to be “uplisted” to the highest level of CITES protection. Along the way, they discuss the blurred line between filmmaking and journalism, the ethical weight that comes with shaping a story in the edit, and the power – and limits – of a documentary to change international policy.

Crucially, the conversation also turns north, to the Indigenous communities who have lived alongside polar bears for generations. Abraham reflects on the cultural and subsistence importance of traditional hunting, how little money actually reaches those communities from the luxury trade, and why giving polar bears the protection they deserve doesn’t have to mean erasing the people who share their icy home.

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Recorded on the outskirts of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, this episode finds David at the 20th Conference of the Parties to CITES – the global treaty that has regulated international trade in endangered species for the past 50 years. Inside, beneath flickering lights, 185 nation-states haggle over commas, clauses and quotas; at the back of the room sit conservation NGOs, animal welfare groups, trophy-hunting lobbyists, biomedical interests and import–export industries, all vying to shape the fate of the world’s wildlife.

Amid this diplomatic circus, just outside the expo centre, David sits down lakeside with Iris Ho, a proudly self-professed “CITES nerd”. Born in Taiwan and now based in Washington, DC, Iris is Head of Campaigns and Policy at the Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) – the largest network of accredited primate sanctuaries in Africa. She explains how PASA’s work caring for rescued primates on the ground connects directly to the policies debated in those halls, and why a single well-crafted decision can protect far more animals than any one sanctuary ever could.

Together, they explore Iris’s efforts to up-list the golden-bellied mangabey to the highest level of CITES protection, to re-establish an international great ape enforcement task force, and the troubling case of a private “rescue centre” in India that has imported tens of thousands of wild animals under highly questionable circumstances. Along the way, Iris reflects on growing up in a Taiwan where shark fin soup went unchallenged, the quiet shift in public attitudes she’s witnessed across Asia, and how daily walks in her local DC nature reserve give her the strength to keep fighting for the natural world.

It’s an episode about primates and policy, hope and heartbreak – and about why, if we truly care for the wild lives we share this planet with, we might all need to become just a little bit more “nerdy” about treaties like CITES.

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Following on from the conversation with Dr Bhaskar Choudhury in the previous episode...

Recorded further south, near Bandhavgarh National Park in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, this bonus episode is with Amrit Menon, department head of the Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) Wild Aid division. This conversation looks not solely at rescue and rehabilitation, but at coexistence. What happens when wild animals are forced from their traditional habitats into states that have never before had to co-exist with them? For example, how do local farming communities adapt to life when their new neighbours are forty-five elephants strong?

This conversation details the WTI’s Rapid Action Projects - RAPS — funded in part by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Think of RAPS as conservation’s Thunderbirds: small, nimble teams that drop into crisis zones, offer immediate help, and try to stop future problems before they grow. We’ll then head into the field — to meet with some of the farmers facing the daily reality of elephantine visits, and the RAP project manager there on the floor, Meghna Bandyopadhyay.

With thanks to David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation for making this episode possible.

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David travels to the floodplains of Assam to meet the Wildlife Trust of India’s Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, veterinarian and project head of the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) in the heart of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.

From one-horned rhinos and swamp deer to clouded leopards and king cobras, Kaziranga’s UNESCO-protected grasslands host a breathtaking array of life – yet each monsoon, the mighty Brahmaputra River rises, displacing animals into the paths of highways, villages, and tea estates. Dr Choudhury’s team rescues the injured, the orphaned, and the lost – from palm squirrels to Asian elephants – nursing them back to the wild in what can be a ten-year journey of care, acclimatisation, and eventual release.

Together, they discuss the delicate science of wildlife rehabilitation, the changing flood patterns of a climate-altered landscape, and the deep reverence with which Assam’s people greet the elephants they call gods. Along the way, Dr Choudhury reveals the quiet triumphs and heartbreaks of rewilding India’s giants — and why, after decades of work, the moment an elephant calf rejoins a wild herd still feels like a prayer answered.

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Amid the energy of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, David meets legendary marine biologist, oceanographer, and explorer Dr Sylvia A. Earle — affectionately known as “Her Deepness.” Still diving at 90, Sylvia began her career with a PhD in phycology (the study of algae) in 1966, has graced the cover of TIME magazine, authored nearly 200 scientific papers and 13 books, logged over 7,000 hours underwater, and still holds the 1979 record for the deepest solo dive — 380 meters beneath the sea.

Joining her is conservation biologist Dr Tessa Hempson, Chief Scientist at Mission Blue, the nonprofit Sylvia founded in 2009. Mission Blue inspires global action to explore and protect the ocean through its network of Hope Spots — special places vital to ocean health. Partnering with local communities, scientists, and policymakers, the organization drives awareness, expeditions, and protection efforts toward one shared goal: safeguarding 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. Five years to go…

Sylvia speaks of the fish she calls her friends — sentient beings with personalities, intelligence, and an inherent right to thrive in their ocean home. She reflects on the species lost to time — from the Steller’s sea cow to the dodo — their fate sealed by humanity’s destructive hand. And with a glint of curiosity, she admits her wish to meet a megalodon, that ancient giant of the deep. Yet her message is not one of nostalgia, but of hope. Sylvia believes the youth of today hold the key to a blue future — one where curiosity, courage, and compassion can restore balance to the seas she has spent a lifetime defending.

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Last Summer, MGL shared a very exciting secret with me. A year on, it is with no small amount of delight that I can now finally cease my silence! In Maya’s words:

“I have written a book about Portly the Otter, son of Otter from The Wind in the Willows. It is modelled on Kenneth Grahame’s original, as a series of riverbank stories, and features characters we all know and love, as well as introducing you to some new ones. The book is called The Adventures of Portly the Otter - Untold Tales from The Wind in the Willows and will answer a mystery I wondered about a lot as a child, which is - what really happened to Portly for him to be missing for so long, and end up - discovered by Ratty and Moley,- curled up between the cloven hooves of the god Pan? The book is illustrated by the fabulous Polly Dunbar and will be printed as a four colour hardback gift book in March 2026 by Farshore. I cannot tell you what a joy it has been to revisit the riverbank and spend time with the much beloved Ratty, Moley, Badger, and of course the mischievous Mr Toad, but the biggest delight of all has been spending a year researching and learning about otters.”

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